1. Field of the invention
An airbag deployment control system to detect the position of a driver seat and a passenger seat within the front seat compartment of a vehicle and to selectively control the deployment of the driver side and the passenger side airbags depending upon the position of the seats relative to the dashboard of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Injuries in motor vehicle accidents, especially at high speeds, have been substantially reduced or eliminated by the use of occupant restraint systems. The term occupant includes the driver of a vehicle as well as passengers. Such systems generally include an inflatable airbag normally stored in the steering wheel or dashboard of a vehicle. When the motor vehicle is subjected to a sudden predetermined deceleration, the airbag(s) is/are inflated and deployed automatically in a position to cushion the occupants, restrain their movement and prevent contact with the windshield, steering wheel, instrument panel, dashboard or side door(s).
Unfortunately, problems associated with the deployment of airbags have caused serious concerns. More specifically, the rapid speeds in which airbags must be deployed to cushion the occupants of vehicle s during frontal impact collisions may cause severe neck and/or chest injuries to occupants who are seated in close proximity to the steering wheel column or passenger side dashboard and consequently the airbag deployment region.
The prior art has not directly addressed the problems associated with the relative positions of the seats during the rapid deployment of airbags.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,314 teaches a system for sensing the presence, position and profile of occupants in a passenger seat of a vehicle, as well as for sensing the presence of a rear-facing child seat therein, for use in enabling or disabling a related airbag activator. The sensor system employs sensor-fusion, a process of combining information provided by two or more sensors, each of which "sees" the world in a unique sense. The occupancy sensor samples two detectable properties, a first being a thermal signature and associated motion, and a second is acoustically measured distance and the associated motion. Infrared sensor imputs and an ultrasonic sensor imput are combined in a microprocessor circuit by means of a sensor fusion algorithm to produce an output signal to the airbag controller. The output signal results from preselected confidence weighing for feature parameters generated by the two sensors and upon a fusion process which ultimately makes a decision. The sensor fusion matrix processes the sensor outputs in a decision making operation which includes weighing inputs to guarantee reliability. All sensor outputs, along with calibration data, initial conditions and historical reference data are considered in the process of making a decision of whether or not to deploy the passenger side airbag in a collision.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,505 teaches a rotary device for front seats of a motor vehicle which enables both a driver seat and a front passenger seat to be rotatably capable of taking an ordinary forwardly facing position and a rearwardly facing position. The device includes a first detection switch provided in the driver seat for electrically detecting the position of the driver seat, a second detection switch provided in the passenger seat for electrically detecting the position of the passenger seat, a first rotation control provided in the driver seat for preventing or permitting the operation of a rotation release lever of the driver seat, and a second rotation control provided in the passenger seat for preventing or permitting the operation of the other rotation release lever of the passenger seat. A control system electrically controls the first and the second rotation controls by receiving signals from the first and second detection switches so as to prevent a condition such that the driver seat is in the forwardly facing position but the passenger seat is in the rearwardly facing position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,226 teaches an automatic angle adjusting apparatus for optimally adjusting vehicle equipment to a driver such as a fender mirror, an inner mirror, blowing ports of an air conditioner, a speaker and a meter. Amounts of adjustment of vehicle seat parts are detected by amounts of adjustment detectors and the optimum angles of the vehicle equipments, a height of the driver or an eye position of the driver are calculated based on the detection signals to automatically adjust the vehicle equipments to the optimum angular position. When the height or the eye position of the driver is calculated, the optimum angles are further calculated based on the calculated height or eye position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,329 teaches an image analyzer for analyzing the position of a vehicle driver in a three-dimensional coordinate system. The analyzer comprises a light emitting element for emitting an infrared light on the driver's face portion and an image detector arranged to receive reflected infrared light to generate an optical image of the driver's face portion. A microcomputer includes a memory for storing an electronic image corresponding to the optical image and processes the stored image to determine the position of a facial feature, such as an eye, in a three dimensional coordinate system. Position indicating data is utilized for controlling the-angular position of a rearview mirror, the angular position of a steering wheel, the angular and height positions of a head rest, the direction of air directed from an air conditioner, and the position of data to be displayed on a display means.